German Car Blog, Performance, Tuning, Motorsport, and Modification News

We are all going to witness a bit battle in the upcoming few years between the twin turbo V8 motors from Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and even Porsche. The car in the video is an S7 tuned by ABT to 540 horsepower (+120 over stock) so basically a little more than what the 4.0 TFSI puts out in the Audi S8. The advantage for the S7 is that it has a dual clutch transmission versus the automatic in the S8. This allows it to hit 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds. ...

I have been a customer of both ESS (since 2008) and Evolve (since 2010). I had issues with three separate tunes from ESS. Two Naturally Aspirated header tunes where (1) AJ@ESS forgot to turn on the rear O2's, (2) raised my rev limiter to 8,200 where I specifically requested 8000 (and o2's on) on my invoice, (3) cruise control errors after flash, and (4) ESS SMG software REFUSED to upshift in auto mode at redline. The mishap wasn't that big of a deal in my eyes, until I contacted AJ for some help. ...

A lot of comparisons have been made between the 5.0 Mustang and the M3 despite these being cars appealing to different demographics. The M3 being the benchmark of its class and a more expensive vehicle so it should surprise nobody that Ford aspires to compare against the best. What is surprising however is that this Mustange 5.0 running a Roush supercharger pushing 9 psi of boost has its hands more than full with a DCT M3 running an entry level non-intercooled supercharger kit with only 6 psi of boost. ...

Well, this is simply insane and the kind of thing BenzBoost absolutely loves. Take a classic W126 generation 500 SEC, take out the motor, grab an LQ series V8 from a Hummer, and give it two big Holset HX40 turbos. The result? A 916 horsepower and 1075 lb-ft of torque insane tire smoking drift machine. This car comes from Finland which should surprise nobody as it seems the Scandinavians just like to take German machinery and give it as much boost as they possible can. ...

The Scandinavians build all kinds of insane high HP German cars and this one is no exception. TS Racing from Norway put together an S3 with a 2.5 inline-5 featuring a huge turbo that puts out 1074 horsepoewr and 854 pound-feet of torque. This power is fed through a sequential gearbox as the car is built for road course duty. It also retains the all wheel drive system in order to put this amount of power to the ground. ...

In case anyone was doubting what Evolve Automotive regarding their tubular headers here is proof of the performance. An E60 M5 owner with the Evolve tubular headers (ceramic coated) and Evolve tune ran 11.6, 11.7, and 12.0 hitting the highest trap speed of 121 miles per hour. Excellent ET's but the trap speed is not as good as it could be due to a couple miles per hour being scrubbed off thanks to the shorter gears this owner is running thanks to a 3.91 final drive. ...

When the SLS AMG Black Series was first spotted testing rampant speculation followed on what motor would be under the hood. Everything was mentioned from a M275 V12 Twin Turbo to even the new M157 Twin Turbo V8. As more and more testing reports came in from people who saw and heard the car testing as well as leaks from Mercedes AMG themselves it has become clear a revised M159 with output slightly above the 600 horsepower mark will be employed. ...

The Boxster S has received the majority of the press leaving the base Boxster out in the cold so to speak. This is the first test posted that PorscheBoost has come across featuring the base Boxster equipped with the 2.7 liter flat-6 putting out 265 horsepower and mated to the 6-speed manual transmission. Acceleration performance from this motor and transmission combo is a very respectable 14.0@103 in the 1/4 mile. ...

Congratulations to VWBoost member pattrick02 whose MKVI Jetta GLI put down a very impressive 473 wheel horsepower on a dynojet dyno. This car has a modified APR Stage 3+ upgrade but really it is the fueling upgrades that make this amount of power possible. The HPFP (high pressure fuel pump) and LPFP (low pressure fuel pump) system were both modified by USP Motorsports in order to give the fuel system enough of a bump to support this amount of power. ...

Well this just seems to be a common theme, Mercedes gets no points and has a poor race. Call it bad luck if you want but it is happening far too often. Nico Rosberg did not finish the race due to an accident, unfortunate. Michael Schumacher did ok but failed to get any points finishing in 11th place. Sebastian Vettel surprisingly managed to finish in 3rd place fighting his way onto the podium after a penalty during qualifying forced him to start the race at the back of the grid. ...

This is kind of odd as the Audi TT has not really strayed from its roots in the opinion of AudiBoost. It is still a small coupe and roadster with great styling. If anything, the styling evolved and got more mature. The TT is a great looking car but Audi feels it needs to go back to first-generation cues in order to increase its distinctiveness. This means flared fenders which will provide a wider track although the length of the car should stay the same. ...

This is a very common question we get from the V10 community. We thought it would be a good idea to post up a brief write up about why it is that so many owners with tubular headers (evolve / supersprint etc) are achieving near or over 500whp dynojet and 460+ dyno dynamics consistently across the world. To show you we have taken some pictures comparing the stock primaries to that of a long tube header design. In this case it's the Evolve one as that's all we have but it gives you a very clear illustration: ...

Wish we had more than just this one photo but it definitely is better than nothing. The W212 E-Class is getting a significant facelift with the E63 likely getting more than just styling changes. Those changes include the possibility of a dual clutch transmission and all wheel drive. That is a rumor however but what is 100% certain is that the styling is going from the separated headlight look to a single headlight as pictured below. ...

The BMW M Performance Steering wheel is just quite simply way cool. The newer version of the wheel sports an updated LCD screen which is capable of displaying fuel economy/efficient dynamics index and the water/oil temperature. When put in sports mode the wheel will display performance information such as how many g's you are pulling when cornering and display a shift light. This data is all stored and can be referenced later as it would be difficult to do so while cornering. ...

Here is the body piece offering by Caractere for the new Porsche 991. This is the same kit photos were posted of at SEMA. The body kit consists of a new front bumper, front lip, side skirts, rear wing, and diffuser. The side skirts integrate a non-functional rear vent which is an interesting styling element but considering how it offers no functionality and it is simply added on to the exterior body work makes it seem a bit tacky and unnecessary. ...

The 3.0 TFSI supercharged V6 is a very tuneable powerplant. GIAC recently released software for the 3.0 TFSI in the Audi A7. The baseline of the car on 91 octane at all four wheels was 281 wheel horsepower and 296 wheel torque. After the GIAC tune, all wheel horsepower rises to 349 and all wheel torque rises to 324 pound-feet at the wheels. Gains are 68 wheel horsepower and 28 wheel wheel torque all on 91 octane tune only. ...

Another poor day of qualifying for Mercedes in Formula 1 but that is nothing new in the 2012 season. Nico Rosberg will start from the 8th spot and Michael Schumacher from the 14th spot at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tomorrow. Lewis Hamilton took the pole. Sebastian Vettel qualified in 3rd place but was disqualified for not returning to the pits under his own power and supplying a fuel sample. The season is pretty much over for Mercedes but hopefully they race with some pride. ...

Pretty natural move here with Porsche moving from the 997 to 991 for racing. Will the new 991 be more competitive? Well, it simply has to with BMW and Chevrolet beating up on Porsche in ALMS for the past few years. Not to mention Ferrari will be coming on strong and now Dodge is in the mix with the new Viper. Another piece of news is that the Porsche Flying Lizard ALMS team will no longer be a development partner. ...

Seems BMW is preparing for a European economic meltdown. We all know the global economy is in turmoil and BMW is being proactive about it. Last month BMW agreed to a deal with employees that would allow them if necessary to end extra shifts, force mandatory holidays on employees, and remove certain overtime privileges in case of a crisis. These changes allow BMW to survive up to a 30% sales downturn without posting a loss. ...